Empty Shells
by Live-by-pen
Summary: We were doomed since we first set out on this mission. We were cursed since the day our fathers told us that it was alright to be curious. For now, we are doomed to be empty shells forgotten by the sun.
1. Chapter 1

Hello, and welcome to _Empty Shells_! I appreciate all critiques and reviews, and must post me disclaimer now (clears throat): I do not own FMA. If I did, you would know, because the drawings would look like they were done by an ADD monkey. The only things I own are my OCs.

Warning: This first chapter contains only OCs, but Ed and Al will show up in Chapter Two, I promise!

On with the story!

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We were doomed since we first set out on this mission. We were cursed since the day our fathers told us that it was alright to be curious. Perhaps if they had told us not to question the ways of the world, we would not be the monster we were now, doomed to walk the earth as unnatural creatures.

_A year before…._

"Irene, could you help me in the kitchen for a bit?" I looked up from where I was reading, smiling at Miss. Suzette.

"Sure thing; let me put this up and I'll help. Do you want me to get Harrison too?" Harrison, my best friend and near brother was in the scientific section, studying whatever he was interested in this week. He probably wouldn't come out unless I dragged him; he tended to forget about the basic necessities like eating when he was engrossed in research.

"Yes, I didn't see him at breakfast or lunch. He has a meeting with a family tomorrow too! Tell him to wear his nice starched shirt and black slacks, alright sweetie?" I nodded, walking to the science section of the small library. Harrison looked like a madman, piles of thick books and papers haphazardly scattered around the table he was working at.

"Harrison, Miss. Suzette wants us. You can read later." He looked up sharply, the action making his overlarge glasses slide own his nose a bit.

"Are you joking? I could create the next form of alchemy if I studied enough. There's a pattern in here somewhere, and I'm going to find it!" He cussed a blue streak as his glasses fell off, and he felt around for them on the desk. "Damn oculists! If it was up to me, I'd build my own frames, but the stupid orphanage with their stupid safety rules won't let me use a wielder! Honestly, we're sixteen, we won't kill ourselves! And what's with the families attempting to adopt me? They all want to "see me in action,"" he air-quoted. "I'm smart, but I'm not as smart as you! Irene, if you'd just show them, you'd be set for a life! All you have to do is go to a teacher in class and talk to them about your theory of light alchemy! If you showed them, you'd be out of this place!" He was going off onto one of his science rants again, which involved lots of arm-waving and talking about me. I hated them.

"Harrison, you know that I didn't create that theory, WE did. You were an integral part of it, just like how WE have stuck together ever since I got here." I stood, signaling that this discussion was over. "Let's go and help Miss. Suzette, she's making dinner."

"Is it meatloaf night?"

"Yes, why?"

"…I have come to the conclusion that that isn't meat that's brown or carrots that's orange. It's the other way around."

I gagged. After seven years of eating that stuff, now he tells me!? "What's the green bits?"

He paused, and I could almost see his brain churning out a conclusion. "Because I consider myself your friend, I have decided not to tell you." Oh. My. Alchemy. I felt my stomach turn with the thought of eating the meatloaf, and Harrison grabbed my arm, dragging me to the kitchen, muttering about how girls were so queasy.

"Harrison, a retired alchemist and his wife are coming to visit tomorrow, and they requested you especially! Isn't that nice?" Miss. Suzette sat at the head of the long table, with benches on either side of her. The youngest kids sat the farthest away from her, until it ended with me and Harrison on to the right and left of her. There weren't any other kids our age here, so I was next to a seven-year-old and Harrison was next to a ten-year-old. Miss. Suzette had assured us that someone wanted us, but I'd watched for seven years, and I knew that it was too late for us. We'd reached the age of scary teenager-hood, and adults would stay as far away from us as humanly possible unless they wanted trouble. We'd wait out our days sitting here until our eighteenth birthdays. "And Irene, I was down at the bakers yesterday and Mrs. Williams, the baker's wife, told me that she might want a hand down at the shop, or she could introduce you to a nice man, maybe a government official or a military man. That way, you could live happily."

"So you're saying that you want to marry Irene off to some military… mongrel? She's sixteen; she can very well live without marrying the first man who can afford to keep her!" Harrison glared at Miss. Suzette with venom in his glare. "And furthermore, I refuse to meet another man who'd just keep me as a curiosity he found while traveling! I'm a person, not a pet monkey who learned a few tricks!" He stood, causing the usually rambunctious table to still. "I'm going to my lab, and if anyone interrupts me, I shall flay their skin off with a butter knife!" He stalked of, and Miss. Suzette stood as if to follow him, but sat down, shaking her head. I quietly stood, following after him. I climbed the creaky old stairs to the water-damaged hall that held the boy's rooms. Harrison's room was the one on the corner, and was the smallest, but he got it to himself. I opened the door without preamble, and a small puff of green smoke exited the room. "Ire, get out. I'm not in the mood to be optimistic." Harrison had on goggles and was pouring a purple liquid into an orange one, producing a red liquid that gave off the green smoke.

"I'm not either." I sat down on his bed, the only part of the room that wasn't completely covered in experiments or notes. "I wanted to talk about your stupid idea of trying to resurrect the dead." He'd found it last year, and was trying to convince me to help him figure it out. "It's doable, I'm sure."

"How do you know?" He adjusted a wire above the beaker, not even looking at me. "You told me it was the worst idea I've ever come up with."

I knew that if I told him I'd never stopped thinking about it he'd never let me live it down. But ever since he suggested it, I couldn't help but think of it. The idea of seeing someone who's been dead was so enticing, so tempting. And he even told me that we could bring back the third person in our trio. The person who brought us together and who we loved like a brother: Xavier. I missed him so much it hurt to think of him as dead. I'd even started calculations on how much of each element we needed. There was no turning back now. "I'm in. It might be the worst idea you've come up with, but it was your idea. Your ideas aren't ever wrong."

He smiled, and turned towards me. "Just watch. With our talents, we will be the first alchemists the world that successfully perform a human transmutation (that I know of)." I imagined Xavier alive again, well again, whole again! "We start tonight." I hoped that Harrison knew more about this than I did, or else we'd be in serious trouble.

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That's it! Review now, or Harrison will force-feed you meatloaf! (I swear that's like the meatloaf in my cafeteria, thank goodness I'm a veggie) Later for now!


	2. Chapter 2

Hello, please see disclaimer from before. Enjoy! Remember to R and R!

I wish that I could say that it was easy to figure out how to do a human transmutation, but the truth is, it's a serious pain in the a**. I tried to use the Light Alchemy that we'd developed, and it helped, just not much. The real help was the fact that we could harness the energy of the sun through our bodies in Light Alchemy. It saved time and we used the energy when dealing with Equivalent Exchange. The basic idea is that humans take in Vitamin D from the sun and use it as energy, but this process is sped up and that energy is what we exchange. The only flaw is that we have to find places outside on sunny days to work, and we always ended up with terrible sunburns. Harrison swore up and down we'd get skin cancer, and I agreed. But to see Xavier again, it was worth it.

"So we have the materials necessary, but no way to go about this," Harrison mused, studying one of his numerous notebooks. "And we have a few months tops before dearest Miss. Suzette is sending you off to who-knows-where and me to," he shuddered, "a private school for gifted children."

"Why don't we cut a few corners and skip the part that reconstructs the extra proteins like hair?" I sighed, digging my palms into my forehead. "Look, I haven't slept in a good four days and I'm starting to get a headache from reading all these alchemical dissertations. Can't we just take a break for one day?"

"You can take a break when you succeed." Easy for him to say, he wasn't immune to coffee. He was used to this crazy Spartan research. If I didn't sleep, I'd hallucinate! The only person who could ever reason with Harrison was Xavier, in the magical way he did. There was something about him that made it seem like he was the only one in a room, drawing your attention directly to his alluring, comforting blue eyes. He could get Harrison to stop and take a break, or go outside, or even let him cheat off his homework. He also held me in the same thrall, and I was sure that when Xavier even thought of needing us, we'd both come running. He just had a way with us, and I couldn't hope to get him or Harrison in a million years. Not even… That's it!

"Harrison, hand me the book on transmuting elements." He slid it across the table, cocking an eyebrow. "If I'm correct, a transmutation circle that I saw in here could be modified to fit our requirements." I scanned the pages quickly, attempting to find the circle I'd just remembered. It was in the middle of the book, in thick, bold lines. Ah! Page 546! The entire page was covered with the array and notes on preparing it. "See?"

He took it from me, and spent a good five minutes staring at the page. "This just might work if we customize it to fit the purpose."He passed the book back after meticulously copying the page onto one of the hundreds of papers that piled up on his side of the table. "You know what to do. Get cracking!" I dove into the research with a renewed hope, exhausted nonetheless. If this plan worked, we could see Xavier again, just like when we were satisfied, when we actually had a will to live. Without him we lost hope, lost drive. But the hope of bringing him back… All my hope resting in this book. I flipped pages, engrossed in the tome.

"Take a break Ire, you're never going to get anywhere if you just stare at the same page for too long." I looked up, bleary eyes attempting to focus.

"What about you?"

Harrison turned a page, "I'll be fine, and you get some sleep and food."

"Not unless you sleep too." I smirked half-heartedly. "Don't want you falling asleep on the job!" I could see the bags under his eyes and how slowly he was reading compared to his usually lightning-fast speed. "Come on, it's only a day."

"Fine, only a maximum of twelve hours, okay?" We both stumbled blearily to his bed, falling asleep moments after we closed our eyes.

"Harrison? Harrison? Wake up!" I poked him, and he brushed my hand aside. "Come on, just wake up! We need to get back to work, and I need you to escort me outside because Miss. Suzette isn't letting me out without someone else and I really need to get some more sun energy and I just need you awake!" I poked him viciously, and he swatted my hand away, cracking open an eyelid.

"Mmmm, whzzit?" He sat up slowly, and I placed his glasses on the end of his nose. "Irene? What're you doin'?" He paused suddenly, and it seemed to finally come to him. "Xavier! Let's go!" He threw a fresh shirt on, not even bothering to turn around as I stole one of his as well. We'd seen each other before, we were like siblings. The white button-down's sleeves fell over my hands and I suddenly realized exactly how much bigger Harrison had gotten. When was it that he started to get taller than me? "Come on!" Harrison interrupted my reminiscing, and I followed him outside, ready for another day of nonstop work.

"Got it!" Harrison smiled triumphantly, holding up a battered blue notebook. "One human body, coming right up!" He cracked it open and began reading, making sure I heard. "250 mg. salt, 100 saltpeter… It's all here!" He looked at me. "All we need now are the array and the soul. Any ideas on the soul?"

I gritted my teeth, knowing that this was coming sooner or later. I had an inkling, but I wasn't sure if I should share… "Equivalent Exchange. One cannot gain something without first losing something of equal value. What can replace a soul? It might come down to exchange of one soul for another. But does it matter if the soul is of the same essence as the soul you want back? Same age? Same gender? We won't know until we're there." He leaned forward.

"Are you saying there's a chance one or both of us will die?"

I swallowed harshly, "Yeah." It was one of the hundreds of situations rushing through my head, but it seemed to be the most plausible. But Xavier versus death, Xavier won, hands down. When the fire had started, both of us had tried to save him, but we were too late. Total devotion was what we had for each other, but death… It was extreme, even for us. But it was what we did for our "family." "I'll need some blood."

He rolled up his shirt, offering the vein in the crook of his arm instantly. I tied one of the socks lying around his room right above it, isolating the vein. "Where's your knife?"

"Top drawer. Wash it first." I did as he said before using it to cut into his flesh. He grunted, but bit his lip to stop from protesting any more. "Sorry."

"It's fine." I collected the thick liquid in a small vial, and stopped as it filled up. I sealed up the cut with alchemy, and handed the knife to him.

"Your turn. Cut me!" I held out my arm, and almost cried out as he sliced into my arm, drawing forth the red life of my veins. "Hey, make sure you seal it right." Harrison nodded, and wrapped a bandage around my arm, pressing down. I winced, and he smiled.

"Just grin and bear it." I nodded, feeling a bit lightheaded. "What next?"

"We need to build the circle. It will take some time." He frowned, and I knew what was coming next.

"We don't have time. We have five days. The only reason I've not hurried you is because of how hard you've been trying. But we don't have the luxury of time." I nodded, and sat down with a new sheet of paper, sure that I'd only take a few hours to complete the array draft.

"Wrong again. I can see that line makes the lipids react to the air, which would in turn make them shrink." Harrison turned back to his own work, and I puffed out my cheeks in a pout. It wasn't fair that he could find flaws with my work! I doodled on a spare piece of paper, but stopped as I realized what my strange, zoned-out me drew. This had to be it!

"Harrison, I got it!" He looked at the page, and a smile grew on his face.

"You, my dear, are a genius!" I laughed as he picked me up and danced me around the room. "We did it! Xavier's going to be alive! He's alive!" I started to cry out of relief. We'd done it. We'd actually done it. I could remember Xavier, and I flashed back to when we'd lost him.

"_Xavier, do you want to go with us to the bakery? Miss. Suzette told us to get a few loaves." _

_Xavier shook his head, intent on his book. "I'm going to study. You two hurry back, alright? I feel uncomfortable without my two favorite people with me." Harrison and I nodded vigorously and he smiled, patting my head. "Go on guys." We ran off, smiling._

_After our stop at the bakery, we rushed back to the orphanage, but stopped in our tracks once we saw it. The orphanage was in flames, the wooden building blazing like a funeral pyre. I saw kids racing out, but the line of kids didn't include one distinctive brunette. Xavier wasn't out. I raced into the building, shaking off Miss. Suzette's attempts to stop me. Harrison followed, but we were stopped by a beam. We cried out for him, but we only saw him. He didn't answer, because he'd been pinned by a fallen beam. He was unconscious, and we both tried to go past the beam, but the volunteer firefighters had come, and had pulled us back. "Noooo!" _

_Xavier had died that day, and the worst part was, his remains had burned. All that was in his grave was dirt and our tears. _

But that didn't matter now, because tomorrow, we would bring him back. For good this time. Harrison set me down and whispered in my ear, "We did it." And for that blissful moment, life was sweet, instead of the misery and pain it would be from the next day and on.


	3. Chapter 3: The Plot Actually Starts

Here it is! Like always, I own nothing. Even the Hippocratic Oath, which I ripped off of one of the numerous encyclopedias lying around my house.

* * *

"Ready?" I had drawn the array in a mixture of our blood, and in the sparse light of the moon, it glistened a sinister black. Harrison had chosen a small clearing in the forest to complete the alchemy, and I could see why. The sinister appearance, the aura of mystery… Harrison was such a drama queen. Figures he'd pick the only spot for miles around where you could see both Xavier's grave and the full moon.

"Yeah," he said, before pouring out his ingredients, muttering what they where to himself. It looked like soot, not at all like Xavier. I usually could see the image of Xavier lurking around the corners of my eye when something reminded me of him, as if I turned, he'd be right beside me. He'd be right there, ready to offer me a wan smile or a friendly touch. But he wasn't. That was just a mound of ashes. Like his body was now. "Ire, let's do it now."

"Alright." I knelt down on the opposite side of the circle to Harrison, nodding to him. He placed his hands down, fingers digging into the blood-soaked ground. I did the same, and let the alchemical power flow through me. The air crackled with power, and a shudder wrecked my body. I felt a pain go into me, causing me to scream. Harrison did as well. For the first time, I felt true regret for doing this, and I questioned our choices. Were we right, or would this end in tears? There was a bang, and suddenly all I could see was darkness.

"_Foolish children, how dare you come here? We shall have to punish you." _I looked around wildly for the source of the voice, but I couldn't see anything. _"To pay for your folly, what should we take?"_

"Who are you? Where am I?!"

"_You are not afraid of death, but rather the unknown? Interesting. You live in fear of losing yourself, losing the memories of someone." _The voice gave of harsh, rasping laugh. _"What a strange child."_

I suddenly knew. This was my punishment for letting Harrison do this, for assisting in something human shouldn't dabble in. But I wasn't afraid, only calm. If this… thing wanted to take something away from me, I could only assume that it had the power to do so, whether I wanted it to or not.

"Take what you want. Equivalent Exchange, right? It's only fair." I steeled myself, ready to experience the pain.

"_Half a year. You will suffer, your memories being transferred to someone else."_

"Who?"

"_If I told you would it be punishment? You will slowly forget, and you will fade, leaving behind only an arm and a leg. That will be your punishment."_ Pain filled me again, and I was back on the cool, earthy dirt, gasping in air.

"Are you alright?" Harrison helped me up, shaking.

"Y-yeah. Did you…?"

"A year and a half, loss my memories, all that will be left is my body. An empty shell!" He stated to shake, before turned to me. "Not you too Ire!" I nodded, numb. "Sorry." I looked up, hearing his quiet sobs. "I should never have thought of it. I'm so stupid!" I moved to comfort him, but was stopped by a familiar voice.

"How are my two favorite people?"

I turned slowly, not even daring to believe it anymore. I must be hallucinating, or just crazy. But there in the middle of the circle sat a boy I'd thought to be dead.

"Oh great, now I've gone stark raving mad as well. Irene, do you see?"

"Yes," I said slowly, backing away from the circle, "I see it."

"Why are you two so nervous?" He stood smoothly, movements even more graceful than I remembered. The only difference from my Xavier was a tattoo, which stood out prominently against the chalky white of his hand. "I'm back now, and you two won't leave me again, right?" He licked some of our blood off of his wrist, smiling. I realized that my instincts were screaming at me to run, but I couldn't move. His cold grey eyes pinned me to the ground, mesmerizing me.

"Harrison, take the knife you brought with you, there's a good boy." His voice soothed and filled me with a dangerous security. Harrison walked, almost as if in a trance, grabbing the knife. "Now grab Irene's hand." He did just that. "Write my name on there, will you?" I tried to pull away, willed my body to come into action, but it wouldn't obey. The knife made the first cut, and I screamed. "Silence." I bit my lip bloody trying not to scream as Harrison finished.

Through the blood, the wound was visible. A large, jagged 'X,' with a smaller 'T.' "Now, give the knife to Irene. Irene, mark Harrison now." I started to grab his hand, before remembering something that Xavier told me when he was still alive.

"_What's the Hippocratic Oath?"_

_He smiled at me. "It's a vow once made by doctors that made them promise not to hurt their patients or break their trust. It also forbids them to raise the knife against anyone. They also usually take a vow that promises that they will "Do no harm." Do you understand?"_

"_Yeah! That sounds cool!"_

"_I'm glad you think so too."_

This wasn't Xavier. Xavier would never have me raise a knife against anybody. This was some cruel mockery of him! I forced myself to say the one line of the oath I remembered.

"I will not use the knife. I will not use the knife! I WILL NOT USE THE KNIFE!!!" My fingers slipped from the hilt and I fell to my knees. The Xavier-mockery frowned, but sauntered to me.

"Why did you disobey me Irene?"

"You're not him," I whispered, shaking. "You are nothing like him."

"Pity. I always thought you were too smart for your own good." He walked past me, over to Harrison, who still stood unmoving, eyes glazed over. "Harrison, kill Irene for me."

Harrison approached, ready to kill me. "Harrison? Do you want to kill me?" He continued. "That's great. That's good. Kill me if it's what you want to do." He walked closer. "I love you." He stopped. "I love you Harri. I don't blame you for wanting to bring Xavier back. I love you so much." I closed my eyes, ready to die.

"I-Ire?" I opened my eyes. He stood, looking horrified at his grasping hands, ready to strangle me. "What happened?"

"Oh _magnificent_!" Fake-Xavier rolled his eyes. "Now who's going to kill you two?"

"Stay back!" I moved in front of Harrison. "What are you?"

"Call me Temptation, I hate the name Xavier. It's so weak, just like a human. It doesn't suit a homunculus." Harrison growled at him. "Whoa there Spike, do you want me to knife you?" I tried to speak, to ask him where Xavier was, but he interrupted. "Oh, I'll just hunt you two down later and kill you. You have six months to run." He smirked at me, eyeing my bloody hand. "Entertain me." He walked off, leaving us alone to figure out what happened.

"What do we do?" I shrugged. "Where do we go?" I shrugged again, tending to my arm as if in a trance. By now, the wound was numb, the blood flow slowing considerably.

"I guess we should run. We need to find a way to destroy… that thing." I refused to give the Xavier-fake a real name.

"But why? He- It said it'd kill us."

"We're dead either way."

"Fine. Where could we hide then?"

"Central." It was perfect. With access to information and supplies, as well as a dense population. We could hide in plain sight. "We should just pack and then leave on the next train. It arrives at dawn."

"What about the orphanage?" Harrison sounded like a small child, timid and unsure.

"What about it? Look, everyone that knows us would think we didn't have the money to get as far as Central. Besides, we're only a couple of harmless brats, the warrant will probably only extend to Hainburg." I stood, wincing as my hand moved. "Let's go."

He followed as if in a trance, until we snuck back into his room. I told him to pack his essentials before sneaking upstairs to the girls' dormitories. I went into my tiny room, snatching the small pouch of money that contained all my life's savings. I stuffed that into the battered old suitcase I had under my cot, then I put in my old dresses for everyday (one black and one blue), my handed down pants and overlarge shirt from Harrison, and the red dress I was only to wear on special occasions. I was also able to fit all my research notes, blankets, and the only photo I had. I was able to sneak into the kitchens and steal the rations that would have been fed to us for the next two weeks.

"Ready?" Harrison nodded. I smiled reassuringly at him before wincing as the bandages on my hand, underneath the gloves I wore, shifted.

"Ire, I am so sorry-"

"It's fine. What matters is that we're starting over, atoning for our crimes."

He smiled tentatively, taking my suitcase in his free hand as we sat to wait for the train. "Oh, aren't you two just the sweetest little couple!" The woman started yammering about "young love" and "her romantic days." Harrison looked at her with his trademark look of disdain.

"What is she yammering about?" I shrugged, a slight grin painting my features.

"What are two teenagers doing without an escort?" The officer approached us, and I clung onto Harrison's arm for comfort. If we were found out here…

"We're getting married. Her parents and mine weren't excited about it, but we are." He gently kissed the top of my head.

The officer smiled. "Good luck kids, hope you're happy." He winked roguishly at me. "careful with the extra cargo there young lady!" He went off whistling.

We sat in shock until I looked up at Harrison. "You don't think he thought I was…?"

"Impossible, of course not."

"He did, didn't he?" I groaned, mortified. "Good thinking though."

"Thanks. That woman gave me the idea. It's easier this way. We should keep that story. It must be pretty common, and it'll give us a reason to live together without looking suspicious."

"Great." The train arrived in a whirl of smoke and noise. "Let's go then, dearest."

"Let me take your bag, darling."

"Thanks, bunny-muffin."

"Whatever you want, glucose-pastry."

I looked at him, confused. "What?"

He sighed impatiently, "Honey-bun." I looked at him for a moment before busting out laughing. "It's not that funny!"

* * *

I kid you not, my brother was helping me make up pet names and called me a "glucose pastry." It just sounded like a Harrison thing to say.

Harrison: No way!

Me: Way. Very way. You are a nerd, even more so then Ed, because at least Ed has muscle. You however, are a pasty white boy from sitting inside and reading. A feather could beat you at an arm-wrestling match.

Harrison: ... (sulks in corner)

R&R please, I have no idea if anybody likes this if you don't! I you do, I will send you a glucose-pastry!


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